How to Know a Good Beauty Academy

November 26, 2010

This post was written during my absence from the world for the past 4 days earlier. Think it'll benefit those who would want to study at a good academy that provide good education. These are my opinions on how to detect a good academy in Malaysia. It's good for those who want to get into a beauty academy too, whether you've signed up or not. Pictures are just pictures, to make you understand more of the context, not judging the source. Enjoy. =)

Hi all! I’m writing this on Microsoft Word because right now, I have no internet connection and I was just thinking, since I’ve graduated from a beauty academy, I think I can help others on finding a good academy for them to learn at.

The meaning of a good beauty academy simply means that if the academy is responsible, organized, has the ability to teach and can give you learning experience that is worth your money spent on them.

Go Online
1.First, I’d suggest you check on their legitimacy/ability to teach the course you’re wanting to enroll from the body who gives them the certificate. No need to check out the place first. You want to know if they are able to give you good quality learning and are lawfully eligible to offer you that course.

♥ If you’re looking for Malaysian based certificate, SKM / MLVK, skip to Check it Live down below.

♥ Check on the source of accreditation of the course. Whether it’s CIBTAC, CIDESCO, City & Guilds or anything else. If it’s CIBTAC, check with CIBTAC on whether that academy is authorized by CIBTAC to give out their certificates, you know?

If yes they are authorized, ask how long more they are authorized to do so. You can check this on with the academy later if you want. There are expiration dates on these things I believe, like a contract. Exactly like a contract.

Then ask for the course you’re thinking of enrolling to at that academy. Ask how long the course should be. Some people shorten the course period to just 6 months and still call it Diploma when you should be studying Diploma at least 2 years. Oh yes they do. If the time is the same as stated by the academy, congrats, you’re another step close to find your good academy

If it’s possible, ask for the course module, like what you will learn from that course. Usually these are in pdfs.

End the conversation with CIBTAC. Now you know the academy’s authorized and are fully up to the CIBTAC’s standard of teaching. This is like, 50% success already. =) On to the next step.

Reliability and Promptness

2. You can skip this step if you want. =) This is just to check their administration work, if they’re fast on responding to enquiries, calls, emails and so forth. Check if the academy has a website and email them. I won’t be thinking about that academy no more if my email don’t get replied after 3 days and calls not returned/ not answered after several calls. See how they reply your email, if it’s professional or your call was answered like a 5-star hotel in London.

Check it In Action
3. Check out the place. I suggest you check the place out during the school time as you will know it really is to be in the academy (not recess time please). Never ever fall for the UK, Switzerland beauty certificates that are hung on the walls. Yeah sure they are real, but the one holding it maybe not even working there or not going to teach you later on.

A lot of details to look into such as;♥ The place itself. Is it where it is as stated on it’s website? You don’t want to go there and find yourself staring at the academy in a terrace house.♥ Ensure they take REASONABLE amount of students for the size of their academy. Look into their practical room, sauna, steam, theory room, make up room or any other rooms they have on teaching students. Do they have enough space? Do you think you’ll be comfortable in that situation? Do you think you like how the teacher teaches?

♥ See the rooms they use to teach the students. How well-stocked with tools to teach is essential. You want to be looking for tables, chairs, teacher’s table, a board to write at, LCD projector, maybe some statues of faces or graphs of anatomy across the wall would be nicer. Practical rooms should be well-lit, with nice beds to lie on and you can see sterilizer and cleaning products and tools. (shows the academy is hygienic)

♥ A good place should have like a school you used to go have. A principle/headmaster, discipline teacher, chalkboards, classrooms, playgrounds, etc. Teachers should be available to teach all the lessons in the course you’re interested in. Cleaners can be interviewed as well, like, how long has he/she worked there, how they treat the workers, etc.

Same goes to appliances, machines or any other kind of furniture that you need to learn your desired course. They must be available so that you can learn that subject.

Scenario 1: Let’s say the course tells you that you’ll learn sauna but the academy doesn’t have a sauna or no teacher to teach sauna or maybe their term of sauna is the mobile sauna type where it’s like a box and you just put yourself in it.

So this is a MUST to look at.

4. Check how they run the place

♥ Those who teach beauty must teach their students about being well-mannered and take care of their appearance most of all. See how far the academy you’re address this matter. Can’t tell you how many times my eyes sore because of super mini skirts or intentional unbuttoned buttons.

♥ Talk to the principle and ask questions. Believe me, you would want to make sure you’re picking the right academy and worth your RM50,000 money. “How do you teach your students?”, “What’s your view in teaching beauty?”, “Who will be teaching the subjects? Are they certified teachers?”, “How well has your previous students do in their course?” (ask for papers and lists, don’t believe what they say until you see it printed somewhere like on magazine, newspaper, or a paper with a stamp from the certification body)”. Yes, it does sounds like an interview but it’ll all be worth it.

♥ Who knows better of the place and not to cover up any flaws? The students, exactly. The students who’ve been there for months or maybe even years now that they know every teacher and how they run the academy together. Ask them what they think of the place, would they recommend it to people to join and how they are taught so far. This is crucial. VERY CRUCIAL. You can ask the cleaners too.

♥ Ask about holidays, when do they have them and some timetable for each month or at least, for a semester. Exams that require outside people to validate isn’t a confirmed matter. Anything else, the academy should be able to provide you on daily timetable. This shows the academy is organized and stays on track with the teaching time. When they’re organized in their timetable, means they might be good on how they handle the academy too, you know what I mean?

Check for Hidden Cost
5. Yes, hidden cost. I’ve heard some academies, be it beauty or non-beauty like hairdressing, nail or anything else, has hidden costs like they will tell the students to pay some more money in order to progess their course. So ask about this before you sign any papers.

♥ Ask about the course fee. Do you have to pay in full lum sum or you can pay in installments? I’ve paid my course fee in two installments only when I had the choice to pay about RM1,000 per month till the sum is paid off.

I suggest you take the later where you can pay in installments for the longest period of time. This is as a security and money well spent. Let’s say after 3 months you don’t like the academy but you’ve paid them all the money. You can drop out but you’ll waste RM15,000 already as the academy obviously won’t return your money back. See what I mean? Ask their policy on this one, if you’re not okay with the academy after some time, if you can drop out and ask for some refund or stop paying the installment. Some academies I know give refunds, but not 100% of it.

♥ As we’re talking about beauty academy here, ask about the books, the tools, the products, items and uniforms that you’ll need to use to learn there. Do you have to buy them yourself or the academy will provide them to you free of charge. You won’t believe some amount of money you need to pay for a City & Guilds Beauty Therapy textbook, but it’s worth it. =)

♥ If you leave far from the academy, ask if they have hostels for you to stay, if you want. Ask how much per month do you need to pay and if they have some rules like no cooking, no loud music, no pets, no pork, curfew time or something.

Warnings
6. Just some tips, advice that I have for you.

♥ Don’t fall for that well-spoken English of that principle or that UK beauty therapy certificate that’s hanging on the wall. That principle is just a principle, not the one that will be teaching you and the certificate may belong to somebody who won’t teach you later on.♥ A good indication of how good an academy is the success stories of their students.♥ Don’t fall for phrases like;

"The best in the industry"

You've got to be kidding me. Anybody that claims they are the best, don't believe it. How can they say that and rule out other academies/ people?

"The best academy in Malaysia"

"Fully equipped beauty training centre according to world standard"

What's your proof?

"Highly renowned (name) as trainer/founder in the academy"

Is he going to teach me the course everyday?

In short, don't believe any advertising tactics like these until they prove it to you or you see it yourself. See it printed and certified where you can bring it to a lawyer and he approves.